In advance of completion of its fifth train, Qatar Fertiliser Company (Qafco) has initiated a fresh push into East Asian export markets, opening a new office in Vietnam.

The company also sees potential for its ammonia and urea at the other end of the world.
“Our business relationships with the fertiliser markets in Asia and Africa continue to be on solid ground and we now expect to expand the reach of our marketing activities to the European markets as well,” said Qafco managing director Khalif A Al-Sowaidy.
Further West, the US has emerged as a sizable market for the company’s urea which it imports to feed its biofuels sector. 
Qafco’s fifth train will take annual ammonia production capacity to 3.8 million tonnes (currently 2 million tonnes) while capacity of urea will jump to 4.3 million tonnes (2.8 million tonnes). 
The EPC contract for Qafco-5 is held by a consortium of Snamprogetti of Italy and South Korea’s Hyundai Engineering and Construction.
When Qafco-5 is completed in 2011, Qafco will be the biggest single-site manufacturer of both ammonia and urea.
The expansion will cost approximately $3.2 billion
Qafco is owned 75 per cent by Industries Qatar and 25 per cent by Yara International.

Melamine plant
The company is also constructing a melamine plant designed for annual capacity of 60,000 tonnes. Technology for the plant is being supplied by Eurotecnica, Luxembourg, while Eurotecnica of Italy has bagged the engineering and procurement contract.  The construction contract went to Qatar Engineering and Construction Company, which will also construct the upgrade of the Urea-1 plant. Urea Casale of Switzerland won the engineering and procurement contract for the upgrade which will raise daily capacity from 1,300 tonnes to 1,600 tonnes.
Commenting on the contract to Qatar Engineering and Construction Company, Al-Sowaidy said: “This points to the high level of expertise some local companies have attained and it paves the way for them to achieve their full potential in the construction of chemical process plants.”
The melamine plant is being set up by Qatar Melamine Company, which is owned 60 per cent by Qafco and 40 per cent by Qatar Holding.
Another Qafco subsidiary that has been operational for some time is Gulf Formaldehyde Company (GFC), which produces urea formaldehyde-85. This product used to be imported and having the plant makes it possible for Qatar to sell it to local markets with a surplus exported. GFC’s shares are owned by Qafco (70 per cent), Qatar Manufacturing Industries Company (15 per cent), United Development Company (10 per cent) and Amwal (5 per cent).
Qafco has operational and administrative responsibility at GFC which is located within the fertiliser company’s premises.

Sales
Qafco enjoyed strong sales in the first three quarters of 2008, but demand dropped in the fourth quarter with the onset of recession and a fall in grain prices.
Ammonia sales slipped to 451,000 tonnes in 2008 from 493,000 tonnes in the previous year, while urea performed better at 3.1 million tonnes against 2.8 million tonnes.
In the first quarter of this year, ammonia sales were 138,200 tonnes while urea shipments were 895,800 tonnes.
In terms of value, total Qafco sales in 2008 were QR6.11 billion against QR3.5 billion in the previous year. GFC reported sales of QR60.5 million in 2008 compared with QR46.4 million in 2007.
GFC sold 30,425 tonnes in 2008 against 27,323 tonnes in 2007.
“The marketing strategies that we have in place ensured we play a very significant role in meeting the world’s pressing demand for fertiliser,” said Al-Sowaidy.
Ammonia shipments went to India, Jordan, the US, China, Australia and Korea, among other markets. India and Jordan accounted for 46 per cent and 29 per cent respectively of the company’s ammonia exports.
Major importers of the company’s urea were the US, Thailand, India and South Africa.